When you keep doing stuff with an aircraft that it really wasn't built for, eventually the aircraft is going to do something to you that you really were't built for.
Sound advice. Avoid the ground at all costs unless that’s you’re only option, in which case it’s best to be sitting in an upright position inside the aircraft when you make contact.
The best way to impress your passengers and watchers is to land safely and finish your mission. For thousands of times throughout a whole career without an accident. Now that's impressive. Now that's a responsible pilot.
14 years on and people are still trotting out the same old nonsense. Try researching what happened, and who the pilot was before making stupid comments.
This helicopter was originally designed by Howard Hughes (300 + 500) he spent a lot of thought on crash survivability. Collapsible landing gear is a big one and notice the pilot position to the rotor hub. When there is a hard landing, like there is here, the blades don't flex down and chop into the crew. (Bell, Robinson, Sikorsky, et al.)
I can't believe that one of those judges have him a "9" for that landing. But I totally agree with the other two judges. Even a "1" may be a little high though.
Dennis has performed this routine hundreds of times, but it looks possible the combination of high temperatures in YooTah and the high altitudes caught him out. I spoke to him this week, and he is fine.
@@bigal3940 Dennis hurt nobody. He had one crash in four decades of flying aerobatics, because he didn't allow for the changes in air density on that high-altitude airfield. One crash and that's enough for people to come on here and talk utter rubbish about him. He walked away from this and died aged 88 from natural causes, and yet people have spent the last 14 years saying he was an incompetent idiot. The worst offenders in my view are pilots - I suppose we should expect armchair arseholes who don't know the first thing about aviation to write stupid comments, like the bold pilot quote (I wish I had a pound for every time someone has quoted that here) but when pilots accuse him of incompetence it does make me cross. I knew Dennis. He was a kind, unassuming man who had more talent as a heli pilot in his little finger than most have in their whole body. Being disrespectful to him simply because you couldn't be bothered to find out who he is, what he achieved in his life and exactly why it went wrong on this specific occasion is plain lazy. You're reply to my comment doesn't make you funny - it just makes you ignorant.
@@Wally-H He still lost Altitude, Airspeed and Talent. It doesn't matter how kind, unassuming and talented a person is, performance figures should be worked out for every flight.
I flew with Dennis last year during a pre-display warm up. I wish I'd had a video camera with me, because if you think it looks good from the outside, the view from inside is pretty indescribable. Dennis is incredibly smooth and relaxed and the machine never feels overly taxed, yet at the same time it is at these seemingly impossible attitudes and you're doing things you know shouldn't be possible. He was pretty candid about his crash. All in all, an absolutely inspirational and amazing guy.
He started off modestly and progessively it went out of hand. It could only have ended in a crash. A fast loop so close to the ground is irresponsible.
It was his speed, not the altitude. Dennis performed this hundreds of times successfully and was a world aerobatic champion on type. He knew what he was doing but he didn't allow for the difference altitude made to the air.
A loop is performed with the momentum you enter it. If you want to perform a loop so close to the ground make sure you enter it above the minimum speed required irrespective of the altitude you are at. You should also take into account the reduced lift at a higher altitude if you falling and recovering out of the last part of the loop.
@@jeroenjansen2709 he entered it at a speed that would have been correct at normal airfields. Obviously Dennis made a bad mistake in not allowing for localised conditions and it almost cost him his life. He was a lucky man!
What would getting high do for him? Why didn't he just put it on the ground when he was spinning on the tip of one skid? I'm not a pilot except for little remote control toys.
Despite the bad decision and miscalculation at the end, this guy is a superb pilot. There were half a dozen points in this video where I thought "oh, okay, this is where he's gonna crash" and he stayed perfectly in control.
He pushed it beyond its own capabilities. Clipping the edge at such a profile, speed & rotation, you can expect this result. This craft wasnt built for such high speed, acrobatic maneuvers. A great pilot knows what he can and shouldn't try. This one was still learning.
I work at that airport, the pilot who was performing was a British pilot and crashed because he wasn't used to the lack of performance in the engine of this heli when flying at a much higher elevation. that is why he crashed. He is obviously very talented but made a gross miscalculation. Lucky he sustained almost no injuries, something like a sprained ankle and a few broken fingers is all.
+Peter Schmidt If Dieter was using a petrol engined (instead of electric) heli, his performance would have suffered since the air is considerably thinner (less oxygen and less bite from the rotor) at this elevation, just as +james bridge stated above.
Peter Schmidt - With all due respect, unless Dieter used Nitromethane in place of any of his 'regular' fuels while at the elevation of the airpark in this video, he would have had to perform his aerobatics at a higher than normal altitude as well. I agree with you as far as having a safety net in-as-far as plenty of altitude. Bottom line, the air is much thinner so the rotor blades bite less and normally aspirated, fuel burning engines produce less power. Using Nitromethane would help circumvent the power loss since it contains it's own oxygen. Dieter has likely used this fuel many times but for everyday use, it is impractical unless you have unlimited funds and parts. IF you are a bit unfamiliar with it, kindly refer to these links. www.hotrod.com/how-to/engine/hrdp-1304-what-is-nitromethane-anyway/ AND as you can see by comparison, costs roughly twice what methanol does. www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00655PVAI?*Version*=1&*entries*=0 Good day and I hope you and Dieter have many more good days of flying. It certainly takes much skill to fly RC helicopters!
I watched this entire playlist, be safe out there please guys and gals. Remember to do your preflight and make sure that tail rotor works. But most of all remember there are old pilots and bold pilots but there are NO OLD BOLD PILOTS. Very very glad to hear Dennis is doing fine! My heart sank when I saw the impact. Not only for his safety but also for his loss of what looked like a lot of hard work putting that together.
You don't get to be World Helicopter Aerobatic champion unless you 'show off'. If that's your claim to fame, when you get booked for a show people kind of expect to see this stuff, so what else is he supposed to do?
Only an absolute arrogant idiot would attempt a manoeuvre at such a low altitude. The only phase of flight I practice at such a low altitude is called landing....
Dennis, a former World Aerobatic Champion, performed thousands of successful stunts over the course of several decades in an S300. I agree that he entered the manouvre too low - a strange mistake for someone so experienced.
@@adaniel2224 One year, eleven years, what difference does it make? This video is trending again so a new wave of people read the garbage written here.
RU-vid is great because of well, the videos, but it's also where the uninformed like to advertise their stupidity commenting on videos they have no clue about. Dennis Kenyon was a legend in putting on helicopter shows, competed in multiple world championships, and was the 1992 World Helicopter Display Champion. At the time of this wreck, he had flown over 1,200 demos without incident spanning almost 4 decades. The best pilots in the world, fixed wing or not, don't have that kind of record. Other then a couple of minor cuts, he was uninjured in this wreck, and he continued to put on demos well into his 80's, with his last one when he was 85 years old. He only recently passed away, at 88 years old at the end of 2020, of natural causes.
Exactly. If you read through the many, many stupid comments here made over the course of many years you will see I've been battling against this ignorance for a very long time. Feel free to join me in educating people!
The pilot, Dennis Kenyon was 75 years old when this accident occurred. He is a very accomplished stunt pilot that had a slight error in calculation for the engine and rotor performance at the elevation in which this airpark is located, just as +james bridge has stated previously. Enough, with the stupid comments from people that have no clue of this man's abilities.
racer Blah Blah Blah Enough Already " ... very accomplished ... " Precisely Why The Old GOAT Deserves To Be Savaged, Excoriated & Strapped To A Saw-Horse And Bull Whipped ! Shame Of Britton's Everywhere
@@kennyc388 The only thing here not worth a flying fuck are inane comments made by people who know nothing about flying helicopters. Just in case you're in any doubt, I'm talking about people like you.
i have never ever liked helicopters. as i heard on a program once: "planes seem to glide and cooperate with the laws of physics, whereas helicopters beat them into submission" Helicopters have always been too unstable for my liking.
Nothing I see violates nor beats ANY single law of physics into “submit” as gravity, the law, just brutally smashed and grabbed his soul directly into the larger body (EARTH)
GenXCypher I’ve heard that before. Just BS from uninformed people. Just what makes them “too unstable”? Rotor blades are wings. Provide lift. Helicopters can glide as well: autorotation.
@@TheBeingReal You let go of the controls of any properly designed and balanced airplane and it will find its stable flying posture. You let go of the controls of one of these things and it will destroy itself and you. An airplane is like a car -- you steer it where you want it to go. A helicopter is like an unruly child that constantly needs to be corrected. You ever watch a helicopter pilot's hand when he's hovering? That's all you need to know right there.
Doesn't apply here. Dennis always performed that manoeuvre at that altitude and it was never a problem until this crash, caused by him not allowing for the differences in air density on this field.
Why shed tears anyway? He walked away from it. Dennis died last year at the age of 88 having lived a very colourful life as a helicopter stunt pilot. Nothing really ever 'caught up with' him.
He was a professional stunt pilot, not like some dude screwing around. That’s like saying a racecar driver deserves no empathy after a crash. “That’s what ya get for speeding!”
Anybody who knows anything about aviation and Dennis Kenyon will know what a brilliant pilot he is. He’s also testament that best can also get it wrong. Hot and high contributed to this accident....
Ah, the old infamous pressure altitude. True, most of Utah is above 4500 feet and temps in the 80s and 90s is common. That heat kicks the pressure altitude way up. I have a pilot friend that has had to abort small plane flights and try again early in the morning when the temps are 25-30 degrees cooler. ***Edit: I was corrected below, the correct term is density altitude. Guess I needed more coffee when typing that.
@@Skank_and_Gutterboy I think you mean density altitude (pressure altitude corrected for temperature and humidity). Without doing the math, that 4,500' PA at 90 degrees is around 7500' DA.
So much wrong here. Blade stall, over-pitching, loop close to the deck, and pressure altitude. But mainly, what was he thinking? " I'm going to see if I can trash this helicopter". Mission accomplished.
@Nickhead87 I agree and I was actually thinking the same thing as I wrote that but, because he came at me for no reason, I figured he didn't deserve a more dignified response. So, I said screw it...and wrote it anyway.
Well that obviously describes you perfectly. If you knew anything at all about the pilot (Dennis Kenyon) and stunt helicopter flying, you would not have made such a dumb comment.
The Baby Belle in the foreground was mine. I was among the first to the crash scene just knowing we had a fatality. Dennis came crawling out of a small opening with a small cut and the first thing he said was an apology to the fly-in manger. I've run into several GENTLEMEN in aviation, Cdr.Wallis, David Gibbings and I'll but Dennis right there with them. I feel like I've had a gift just meeting the three.
Dennis is a former World Aerobatic Helicopter Champion - it's easy to say he asked for it but the truth is, he's performed these stunts hundreds of times without problems. Looks like he entered the manouevre too low, it will be interesting to read his own explanation in Loop magazine.
And that's what is really dangerous about these machines and taking them to the edge. Here you have an excellent pilot and a heli in good working condition (presumably), yet he still crashed.
@@darreno1450 He knew the risks. So long as he isn't flying near anyone else I guess he isn't putting others in danger. Dennis died at an old age of natural causes, so he got away with it!
Because he /just/ barely manages to complete the loop and get the chopper level, or nearly so, before he hits the ground. For that reason, the landing skids absorbed most of the impact.
The difference is that he's performed this maneuver many times as a demonstration pilot. As he said, he was close to retirement. Had he retired a week sooner he'd have done so with a perfect record and we'd all have been in awe of his many decades of professional piloting.
I was a maintenance test pilot and Aviation Safety Officer in the Army for 32 years, flew over 600 missions during 3 years of combat; there’s nothing in this video that served any mechanical or learning purpose other than showing off. You say he’s done this 100s of times? That meant you had 99 opportunities to correct him and didn’t. Don’t blame the meteorological conditions either; performance planning is also part of being a professional pilot. This accident happened for reasons that could have been easily mitigated by a pilot that had proper sense.
Denis, Glad to see you are fit and well. You are still the man!! You get back on that horse soon. Pleased to see the good old H300 energy absorbing gear did its work. If that was a R22 it would be a different story, plain and simple.
To those who say we should lighten up with the dumb pilot remarks I can only say this. This man is a highly skilled flyer with A1 safety record. However it was a terrible miscalculation on his behalf to think this helicopter was anywhere near safe for this type of loop wing over or whatever you wish to call it.
Risky pilots are bound to lose and die for playing odds. This pilot happened to walk away from the accident 😂 by failing to know his and his copter's limits. Glad it was caught on film to learn from.
If you're a stunt pilot then of course you will go towards those limits. In this case Denis did that at altitude and made an error of judgment - if you do this sort of thing for you job, those are the risks you take. In the end he got away with it and died of natural causes aged 88, after a lifetime of flying these things.
I'm not a pilot, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. That being said, I don't believe he had his thingamahoppy calibrated for the hoopamirangie that he was trying to execute.
Well said. Then there’s always the possibility of a faulty flange and/or gestaforator. He also should’ve rechecked the thingamabob. A sure recipe for disaster.
Looks like a very talented pilot who probably just forgot to factor in his testicular elephantiasis into the weight and balance figure...A common scenario in exhibition aviation so I'm told.
The talented veteran heli pilot now knows whut his own testicles taste like. The only other guy with that experience was in Porn. And he wasn't piloting a helicopter.
Veteran Performer Involved In Accident At UT Rotorcraft Fly-In Dennis Kenyon Feels "Stupid," But He'll Be OK by ANN Senior E-Media Producer Paul Plack The flying ended early on first day of an informal rotorcraft meet in Utah Friday, when veteran helicopter pilot and airshow performer Dennis Kenyon crashed in a Schweitzer 269C. Kenyon suffered minor injuries, but the machine was destroyed.
